Advice needed: 4K player DAC, Processor DAC, or separate DAC?

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Alastair

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Hi all

I am at a bit of cross roads and so have an opportunity to change the way I have been doing things in the past, if it makes sense.  What I have done in the past is have my Oppo BDP 95 blu ray player send video straight to the Projector via HDMI but send audio via multi-channel inputs to my Marantz AV processor (AV 7005) with 2 x Rotel Amps doing the power amping of the signal into my B&W CDM 9NT + CDM CNT front speakers and 4 x B&W M1 surrounds.

So my philosophy was that I would spend my money on the expensive source (Oppo BDP 95) and use it's DACs which would allow me to get away with a less expensive AV processor.

My Oppo died a while ago and so now I have the opportunity to either replace it or change direction slightly.  I am hoping to have about R20k to throw at this problem. So I can either:
1) Replace the Oppo with another high end 4K player with 2 HDMI outs and multichannel outputs (this would be a like for like replacement basically other than the upgrade to 4K)
2) Replace the Marantz AV 7005 with a newer processor that can handle some of the latest audio codecs.  In other words I would be spending the money here rather than on the source.  AV processors tend to become outdated quite quickly and hence are more affordable 2nd hand buys.  If I go with this option I would then be able to get a more middle of the range 4K source (and send everything via HDMI to the processor) and spend more money on the AV processor itself.
3) Some other option which would involve a stand-alone DAC

Unfortunately I dont have the funds to spend on all of the above so will have to pick my poison.  So which route will give me my best bang for my buck, best future-proofing,etc?

Alastair
 

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